THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



161 



The ApiniUnrist is catching it from tiic 

 B. B. J., vvliicii thinks Ilnlcliinson ilidn't 

 come clown liaitl enongli on the Apt Cor 

 being a "big booming circular." — Stray 

 Straws. 



Well, I (liimio, guess I will nay 

 this: If llie Aiij^. Ari with all its de- 

 fects does not contain as much prac- 

 tical information on bee cultui'e as a 

 whole year's issue of the British Bee 

 Journal, we promise, when any com- 

 petent person will so decide, never 

 to issue another co[)y of the Api. 1 get 

 the B. B. J. weekly and have failed 

 to find one original or i)ractical idea 

 in it for many months. None of our 

 leaders have comi)laincd of the Api. 

 Will oulsidei's please attend to their 

 own business and let mine alone. 



THE SWARM-HIVER. 



Some one has given the swarmer a 

 terrible setting-up in Gleanings. I 

 wonder wh}' IJro. Iv(jot didn't refer 

 the writer of the complaint to two ar- 

 ticles that have ap[)earetl in his pa[)er, 

 showing how the swarmer can be made 

 a success. Not only have 1 done so, 

 but another person who has tested the 

 swarmer has given a method (similar 

 to my own) by slightly changing one 

 of the boxes so that it now will hive 

 any swarm that issues. 



The fact is, I cannot give such di- 

 rections for using and applying the 

 swarmer as will make it a success in 

 all cases. I send you the swarmer as 

 we make them, and 3'ou must a[)[)ly it 

 to the hive. In many cases a little 

 alteration in the construction of tlie 

 swarmer will make it work success- 

 fully. For the benefit of those who 

 havetheswarmersi give below one of 

 the articles referred to in Gleanings. 



THK self-iiiver; now it did and didn't 



WOKK. 



In an issue of Gleanings some time ago 

 you called for n-ports o( the sclf-hiver, so 

 I will give you my experience with it. I 

 placed a hivcr at the entrance of a hive 

 June 25, and on the 2(3ih a swarm issued, 

 but it didn't work, and 1 had consideral)le 

 trouble in getting the queen uilo the new 

 Live. 1 then luodifled the hiver thus : I 



tore the perforated zinc from the box B, 

 and put in its stead the zinc from box C, 

 and then tore the wire clot ii from the sec- 

 ond division of boxB and beveled the low- 

 er edge a little. I place the new hive close 

 to ilie old one, and raise it two inclies 

 ai)ove it on four hall-bricks; then put the 

 "hiver" in place, not using box C at all, 

 and !if) out of lUO swarms will hive them- 

 selves without any care except placing 

 hives in place. Such is my experience. 

 Hinchinan, Mich., Aug.\Q. E. A. Bo.vr.. 



You see it costs little or nothing to 

 make the above changes. 1 wdl say 

 that three boxes are used in order to 

 meet all cases, yet box B may be 

 made longer, and box C dispensed 

 with. I send you the correct and 

 about the only [)rinciple that must be 

 applietl in order to make bees hive 

 themselves. The ap[)licalion of it to 

 the hive is left to the beekeei)er. 



In future all the swarniers sold will 

 be constructed very much like the one 

 described by Mr. Boal. 



Bro. Root says the swarmer has 

 been boomed too much. No, it has 

 not. I have plenty of evidence that 

 the swarmer, when properly a[)[)lied, 

 will do all that is claimed. 



kSj^eaking of booming things, Bro. 

 Root, how is it with you? Who has 

 ever done more booming for his 

 goods than A. I. Root? Are all the 

 goods you boom as good as you claim ? 

 Didn't 30U counnence to boom the 

 dove-tailed hive before you sold or 

 used one? What has l)een boomed 

 more than the Clark smoker? Do you 

 still consider it a good smoker? Here 

 is my ex[)erience with it. 1 ordered half 

 a dozen of them, sold three of them to 

 customers. I tried to use two of the 

 others, but could not get the needed 

 amount of smoke. I saw what the 

 trouble was but did not care to alter 

 more than one of them, and this one 

 worked all O K. The trouble with the 

 Clark smoker is at the base of the i)ar- 

 rel. The draft over and through thefire 

 cannot be concentrated, thus reducing 

 the power to make smoke. I made a 

 new barrel, same shape as used on the 

 Bingham & Iletherington smoker, and 

 got all the smoke needed. 



